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[5]

For it is said that one of the nation of the Getæ, named
Zamolxis,1 had served Pythagoras, and had acquired with
this philosopher some astronomical knowledge, in addition to
what he had learned from the Egyptians, amongst whom he
had travelled. He returned to his own country, and was
highly esteemed both by the chief rulers and the people, on
account of his predictions of astronomical phenomena, and
eventually persuaded the king to unite him in the government, as an organ of the will of the gods. At first he was
chosen a priest of the divinity most revered by the Getæ, but
afterwards was esteemed as a god, and having retired into a
district of caverns, inaccessible and unfrequented by other
men, he there passed his life, rarely communicating with any-
body except the king and his ministers. The king himself
assisted him to play his part, seeing that his subjects obeyed
him more readily than formerly, as promulgating his ordinances with the counsel of the gods. This custom even
continues to our time; for there is always found some one of
this character who assists the king in his counsels, and is
styled a god by the Getæ. The mountain likewise [where
Zamolxis retired] is held sacred, and is thus distinguished,
being named Cogæonus,2 as well as the river which flows by
it; and at the time when Byrebistus, against whom divus
Cæsar prepared an expedition, reigned over the Getæ, Decæneus held that honour: likewise the Pythagorean precept to
abstain from animal food, which was originally introduced by
Zamolxis, is still observed to a great extent.

1ζάλμοξις is the reading of the Paris manuscript, No. 1393, and we
should have preferred it for the text, as more likely to be a Getæn name,
but for the circumstance of his being generally written Zamolxis.

2 D'Anville imagines that this is the modern mountain Kaszon, and
the little river of the same name on the confines of Transylvania and
Moldavia.

The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.

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